New SQ820 Opposition Group Touts Old Marijuana Tropes
Led by Former Republican Governor Frank Keating, the group has become more vocal just a month before the Special Election
Previously on the blog we covered the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma and their opposition to Oklahoma weed legalization over the past years. On much shorter notice, a new PAC has formed to oppose the most recent legalization question up for a vote in only one month.
To search for a PAC or lobbying reports, one can find them on the Oklahoma Ethics Commission website Guardian reporting system. Here’s where one will find a new Oklahoma PAC called “PROTECT OUR KIDS NO 820”.
Here’s some quick info about them.
The PAC is chaired by Former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating and his quotes have been making the rounds on the usual local media. The filings also list Toni Garrison as treasurer.
If you aren’t familiar with Former Governor Keating himself, he was also a former prosecutor among his past experience, and his wife Cathy is on the board of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. The Keatings have a net worth over $1 million and are not without their own past scandal as in 2001 Cathy discussed meeting with Jack Dreyfus and taking money, in regards to his promotions of the anti-seizure drug Dilantin to be given to federal prisoners.
Dilantin has been around for over 100 years and there have been advances in anti-epileptics since that time, including an understanding of the endocannabinoid system and how it works to calm seizure symptoms, yet the aim sought here was to “calm down” prisoners. To grease the wheels on this goal Dreyfus met with the Keatings and also gave them monetary gifts, while Keating was a suitor for Bush’s Attorney General job. The Epilepsy Foundation has also covered Dreyfus’ marketing of the drug and its many side effects, and in 2008 Dilantin was put on the FDA’s Potential Signals of Serious Risks lists, for a number of issues including quality control.
So off-book use of big pharma anti-epiletics given to the incarcerated en masse was an idea to be totally considered, but cannabis regulated and taxed, even in such a way that local infrastructure is reaping from that tax, is a harm much greater it seems, to the former Reagan appointee.
The Tulsa World shares quotes from Keating particularly featuring the classic emotional appeal to look out for our kids, and it’s in the very name of the PAC itself.
Medical cannabis - with THC and everything - has been available to minors with doctor recommendations under state law since SQ788 was implemented in 2018.
Keating is supported by several District Attorneys, and infers in his words that it’s harder to prosecute over a plant, in cases that might keep someone from seeing their kids—over cannabis “usage.”
It includes a prohibition on our court system from considering marijuana usage in child custody and visitation cases.
The article notes the group also also includes the OK Farm Bureau.
The OK Farm Bureau has an anti-adult-cannabis use stance per their own website, and their members filed an amicus brief in one of the legal challenges against SQ820 during it’s path to the ballot in 2022.
The “No on 820” PAC Facebook Page also have a post that announces the OK Sheriffs’ Association as a member. Local sheriffs have been served by Oklahoma cannabis in a few ways while being outspoken public opponents.
Along with agricultural groups that work with the Farm Bureau, they were one of the signers of a letter to OMMA in September 2021 requesting a moratorium on commercial grow licenses; this was followed by OKLEG passing the the Governor signing a bill in the 2022 Legislative session that did that very thing.
The moratorium began in August 2022, but still allowed for license “transfers”, allowing a sort of secondary market of buyouts and businesses/licenses moving around to continue.
Also in that session HB3530 passed, and this took medical cannabis sales tax monies and went to a grant program for local sheriffs. It was passed with an emergency clause and took effect right away. It had only 3 House votes against it in its 3rd reading.
The Oklahoma Faith Coalition is another part of the PAC, they include Paul Abner, who has been mentioned in other articles on opposition to the question. The coalition is listed as a 501(c)4 on the site, and their “key issues” website section list ‘religious liberty’ and ‘protecting life’ (anti-abortion causes), with a Reagan quote at the footer.
Abner was also one of the vocal religious opponents of SQ788.
From The Oklahoman, 2018:
"Essentially an 18-year-old could have a headache and a get a two-year license (to possess marijuana) for that," he said.
"None of us can sustain the sound minds and healthy bodies God desires us to have when we place ourselves under the controlling influence of something other than His spirit. If this state question passes, we have no ability to stop someone from using marijuana in public places, exposing even children to second-hand marijuana smoke, because it elevates the status of marijuana to a medicine," Abner said.
The Washington Post also covered religious opposition to 788 in 2018 from those groups.
“It’s trying to trick the people of Oklahoma into buying into it,” said the Rev. Paul Abner, an Assembly of God pastor who leads an anti-marijuana coalition called Oklahoma Faith Leaders.
With the Legislature convening presently as well with a conservative supermajority ready to pass a flight of new regulations to the medical cannabis industry, this is more of the usual suspects with typical scare tactics as the voter deadline for the Special Election approaches on February 10th.